MIMS announced today that the company, as an Australian first, has partnered with UnityHealth to bring an Australian evidence based Complementary V Mainstream drug interaction module to market.

Surveys by the National Prescribing Service have found that safety and interactions between herbal medicines and prescription drugs are amongst the information most required by health professionals. Furthermore, results of the surveys showed half the people who reported the use of complementary and alternative medicines also used conventional medicines on the same day, while the majority of usages were not reported to doctors. 1

The project to develop this evidence-based interactions data base has been headed up by Professor Basil Roufogalis and Professor Andrew McLachlan, and has been updated and expanded regularly since its inception in 2002. The data now delivers over 500 interaction modules via the unique Australian integrative medicines website IMgateway.

MIMS and UnityHealth the provider of IMgateway (www.imgateway.net) are excited to make available this valuable information to such a broad range of health professionals and their patients.

“Because eMIMS is so resource-rich and used widely by doctors and pharmacists as well as a diverse range of other healthcare professionals, we chose it as the first MIMS product to carry this module,” said Margaret Gehrig from MIMS.

Ms Gehrig went on to say, “The IMgateway database within eMIMS will enable general practitioners, pharmacists and other health professionals to retrieve evidence-based information on clinically-significant drug and herb interactions. Subscribers can search a complementary medicine against a prescription medicine (or vice-versa), quickly obtain a recommendation on whether the combination should be avoided, or be alerted if caution is required.”

The wide range of digital products that MIMS has in the market means the interactions can, in the future, be delivered to the end user in a way that meets their needs and at the point of care. "There is no doubt that the use of complementary medicines is increasing and the need for evidence-based information about their impacts on prescription medicines is now integral to the needs of healthcare professionals and consumers,” Ms Gehrig said.

Professor Basil Roufogalis describes the launch as “an important development in the delivery of evidence based information on herbal/nutritional medicine interactions with pharmaceutical drugs". He went on to say: “There has been a growing demand for this information from doctors, pharmacists and other health professions. The alliance with MIMS provides an excellent opportunity to disseminate the information developed by the Herbal Medicines Research and Education Centre of the Faculty of Pharmacy more widely and for the continuation of the underlying research."

Each organisation will bring their own strengths to the partnership. Both MIMS and UnityHealth are very excited to be delivering an Australian innovation which is designed to provide health practitioners with information to reduce adverse drug-herb interactions. Increased awareness of the potential impact of interactions between herbs, supplements, foods and all medicines will be of significant benefit to the community.

ABOUT MIMS AUSTRALIA

MIMS is the leading supplier of quality, independent medical information to Australian healthcare professionals. Today, MIMS not only offers traditional print information sources, we also reflect the rapidly changing advances in information delivery with new platforms from PDAs to the Internet. But for all the changes, one thing remains the same - the editorial integrity and independence of all the healthcare knowledge delivered through the MIMS name.

We supply the most current, practical and accessible knowledge to assist healthcare professionals practice effectively in the real world.

Our strategy is to work directly with healthcare providers and with the leading healthcare IT suppliers to make the best evidence-based decision support tools available at the point of care. MIMS is unique in its ability to combine internationally referenced alert tools with comprehensive local product information, all delivered to IT partners through a common interface.

MIMS is a subsidiary of UBM Medica, part of United Business Media Plc., an international media and business Information Company employing more than 5,000 people in over 30 countries around the world.

For further information please contact:Margaret GehrigNational Business Manager MIMS AustraliaDirect Line +61 2 9902 7776This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ABOUT UnityHealth Pty Ltd

UnityHealth Pty Ltd, founded in 2001, is supported by an expert panel of leading healthcare professionals, including research specialists in the field of complementary medicine from the University of Sydney. Our electronic products include IMgateway, which focuses on evidence-based complementary medicine information and education services on a range of medical conditions, herbs, supplements and drug interactions (adverse or positive). IMgateway has been developed according to best practice principles, to address the needs of time-poor practitioners, research centres, hospitals, corporations, pharmaceutical companies and community groups.